Academic Affairs

Presented by
Irene Herold, Dean of Mason Library
Robert Madden, Special Collections Librarian
Lucy Jones, College Archivist

Mason Library is pleased to present to the College community for your information and comment the mission of the Keene State College Archives. The first sentence is intended to define the functions of the archive and the archive’s intended patrons. The second sentence places the mission within the context of the college, specifying the topics of the records of enduring value and the scope of the holdings by listing all incarnations of the College.

College Archives have three main functions, one of preservation, another of maintaining information, and finally providing access to the information of the institution. While providing access to information is a familiar function of libraries, preservation and maintenance may not be. Preservation refers to the physical condition of what is placed in the Archive. Preservation would be re-housing fragile materials and capturing information produced on materials or in formats that will deteriorate over time so they will be available for the future. Maintaining refers to the organization and development of the collection. Maintaining in this context involves the creation of records management procedures to ensure that the history of the college is routinely captured and placed where future generations can access the information.

New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation (NHHEAF) Network Educational Foundation awarded to Mason Library and Franklin Pierce University’s Library a twelve-month joint grant for the creation and implementation of records management at the respective institutions. The grant-funded archivist, Lucy Jones, commenced her work in January. As she works to establish records management protocols for Keene State College, Mason Library is simultaneously developing supporting documents of policy and procedure to formally establish the College Archives. This mission statement is just the first official step in this process.

Keene State College Archives Mission:

The College Archives preserves, maintains, and provides access to institutional records of enduring value as a resource for Keene State College students, staff and faculty, alumni, researchers, and the interested public. In support of the mission of Keene State College, the College Archives is committed to providing access to information about the College’s origins, goals, and programs, including its former incarnations as Keene Normal School and Keene Teachers College.

Tags: academic excellence, academic priorities, access, accountability, alumni by irene // 3 Comments »

We’re in the final days before the kickoff of the Keene State College Symposium on Citizenship. For those of you who haven’t seen the ads or the posters or the brochures or the web sites, the symposium begins next Tuesday with a noon session and continues through Friday evening. During those four days, nearly a hundred people will present at over 40 presentations. The presenters include nationally known journalists, scholars and artists, as well as some of Keene State’s best faculty and staff. It’s going to be amazing.

 This is my first symposium at Keene State, so I’m doubly amazed. The effort from all corners of our campus that has gone into making this event so significant has, at times, boggled my mind. The passion. The commitment. The understanding. When we approved the proposal just a year ago, I don’t think anyone expected that we would be putting together an event on such a grand scale.

But this is a topic that resonates. It’s very New Hampshire. It’s very current. Most of all, it goes to the core of what we mean when we talk about a liberal arts education for our students. What does it mean to be a responsible citizen in 2007? How do we prepare our students for a lifetime of civic engagement?

Thanks to everyone who has gotten us this far. Marianne Salcetti and Nigel Malcolm, supported by Advancement, College Relations, Pat Hitchner and so many others have put together an extraordinary array of sessions. It’s up to the rest of us to get the campus the rest of the way. Participate! Bring your classes, your workstudy students, your colleagues to the sessions. Ask questions and challenge yourself.

Although this is my first symposium, I’ve learned well that the biannual symposium is a key event on our campus. I can’t wait to see what next week brings. 

Tags: academic excellence, symposium by enetzhammer // No Comments »

Today we introduce our first guest author on the Academic Affairs Blog. I recently had a discussion with our Distinguished Teacher Therese Seibert about the start of the semester. I enjoyed our conversation and asked her to blog about it. And now a word from Therese Seibert.

A SEASON OF CHANGE
Fall is in the air. I love it, and not just because of the beautiful array of colors that blanket the countryside. Fall means change, new beginnings and fresh starts, including the start of a new semester. Change and the opportunity to try again is one of the many aspects I love about academia. If some teaching approach did not work last semester, I can try a new one. If that paper did not get accepted by a journal, there is always the chance to improve it and try again. Most often in my case, there is the welcome change of getting it out the door in the first place.

The start of this semester ushered in two momentous changes at Keene State: the campus-wide, four-credit model and a new general education curriculum, now referred to as the Integrative Studies Program (ISP). Oh yes, there is also the rotary, but that’s for another blog. For now, I would like to talk about my own experience with the four-credit model and ISP.

A year ago I reluctantly agreed to teach a Quantitative Literacy (IQL) course for the ISP. Wait a minute. Didn’t I just celebrate change? Why the reluctance? I was concerned that additional resources would be taken out of my department that already struggles to offer majors a breadth of courses. But there was another reason, one that I am not proud of. In fact, I hesitate to confess it publicly. So let me put it this way… I am usually not the first person in my department to jump at the chance to teach first-year students. I admit it. Teaching small classes with mature, highly motivated, and well-prepared students is appealing.

Well taking into account some inevitable variation, my first-year, IQL course “Africa by the Numbers” has proven to be a relatively small class with mature, highly motivated, and well prepared students. Here is some empirical evidence to support my observation:
• Most of the students come to class early, not simply on time but early, having read the material carefully. How do I know this? They participate in class discussions, and they question me on material which is a good thing, a very good thing. Yes, this is supposed to be the norm, but I am seeing an appreciable improvement in these areas.
• Many of the students have spoken about studying Africa in a high school course. Indeed, a number of them have suggested videos and books to me, which is also a very good thing. These students demonstrate a greater awareness of global issues than previous cohorts.
• Within one class, most learned how to generate demographic data in Excel. Within one class, they generated a population pyramid using the statistical software package SPSS. This meant learning how to enter data and how to use SPSS in the first place. Some students even tell me how to make my own charts look nicer. I guess this is a good thing; I am still getting used to this one. But most tell me that they took courses in Excel and other computer applications in high school. They are by far the most technologically savvy cohort of first-year students that I have ever taught.

Sociologists always want to know why social phenomena occur; this one is no different for me. Maybe it is the smaller class sizes for IQL courses or the extra time that allows me to cover projects from start to finish in one period. Maybe we are now experiencing the effects of high schools internationalizing their curriculum and infusing more technology. Maybe our curriculum changes are increasingly attracting well-prepared students. Maybe students are getting the message about academic rigor through admissions, orientation, and so forth. Maybe it was the first-year convocation, and in particular, Provost Netzhammer’s speech on our commitment to high academic standards. Maybe it is none, some, or a confluence of all of these factors. What I do know is that I am enjoying this class and the beautiful fall season.

Tags: IQL, ITW, academic excellence, teaching by enetzhammer // No Comments »

I’m just heading out to attend the last two Parent/Family weekend. It’s been a lot of fun, though I am a little exhausted (though certainly not the only one). These are my thoughts as I head out the door.

One of the President’s expectations, strongly supported by all of the VP’s, is that as we continue our quest to make our academic programs stronger that we look to beef up the academic component of everything we do. Academics is everywhere. We’ve changed the orientation program to strengthen academic expectations. We’ve changed things in the residence halls to facilitate learning. We created new rituals–specifically the new student convocation–to make it clear that we have high expectations for our students. Even in athletics, we attend to academics. Many people don’t realize that when Vice President Kowpak reminds us that we are the Number 1 public institution in New England and the 19th ranked Division 3 institution nationwide the we’re talking about the academic performance of our athletes.

We’ve also committed to strengthening the academic component of Parent/Family Weekend. On Friday, 73 parents attended 7 classes that they had pre-registered for, just like their students. Today, we have our first Celebration of Academic Excellence during the Weekend. We’ll be showcasing Student-Faculty Partnerships, from studying abroad to undergraduate research initiatives to community outreach.

This is exciting stuff. It’s also rather new. We’re trying new things on our campus and we’re having tremendous success. But we don’t always succeed. A class is missed, someone forgets to show up, we’ve been a little late in notifying people about a few things. For those, I apologize to those affected.

 For today, I ask that everyone take great pride in the revitalized commitment to academic achievement and to our core purpose as an institution of higher education. It’s nothing short of thrilling…mistakes and all.

Tags: academic excellence, orientation, parents, residence life by enetzhammer // No Comments »

Last week, we were finally able to go public with our big announcement: Rick and Jan Cohen have endowed our first chair, The Cohen Chair for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. We’ve been itching to shout about this for some time now, and the day was a marvelous one.

President Helen Giles-Gee did a great job of explaining the four reasons why this is so important to Keene State College:

First, the gift is the largest single gift in the history of the College. It speaks to the continuous and strong commitment the Cohen family has had for the education and particularly for this public college. Theirs is a long standing recognition that supports the need for high quality higher education for all of this State’s citizens

Secondly, their gift supports the development of academic curriculum in Holocaust studies extending its study to include genocide to address not only the past but unfortunately the atrocities of today. This is a gift that truly will serve the world. 

Ihird, this gift creates a perpetual academic position of leadership. An endowed chair is an academic distinction awarded to a scholar in recognition of past and potential original contributions to the individual’s discipline. The scholar serves as faculty providing oversight for curricular development, teaching and research with colleagues and students.

Fourth, the Cohen’s gift signals the importance of a contribution to enhance quality of the academic program for not only the good of students at this institution but for the good of us all.

Keene State College is honored and privileged to receive this endowment from the Cohens. As the president suggests, a gift of this nature is both a recognition of the high quality of the academic program and a partnership that will allow us to be even better in the future.

This is a big deal. This is a very big deal.

Periodically, I’ll be blogging about some of the other big deals on campus. There are so many ways we demonstrate academic excellence in exciting an innovative ways. This blog is a great opportunity to feature them.

 For now, thanks to the Cohens and to the faculty and staff of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies who have done great work–the kind of work that merits such an incredible gift.

Tags: academic excellence, endowed chair by enetzhammer // No Comments »